the secret unseen watercooled prototypes of ​​Merlin and Mecatecno

When Josep collected the bike Josep Paxau had these spares waiting for him .

finally we discover the watercooled merlin motorcycles trials bike

Now Josep plans to rebuild , but NOT restore the watercooled Merlin prototype. No paint , no bling ....original and in keeping with how the Merlin engineer would have finished it .

​One day the Aqua Merlin will run again. That for me , and Merlin fans will be a sight to behold !!!. With that small flywheel , body armour and an indemnity form will be required for any willing testers :).

finally we discover the watercooled merlin motorcycles trials bike

Subsequent to Josep's discovery Santos discovered this old image which was taken at the 1988 Barcelona motorcycle show. It describes the engine as being 238cc and shows the same prototype being marketed as a future model.

However we are told that engine in the motorcycle photo below was based upon a 200cc. You can see here that the chain is on the left hand side whilst the chain on Josep's bike is on the right hand side. So ,its confirmed there were 2 prototypes. The 200cc based bike is still lost.

​Its not clear whether this 200cc based bike was simply a mock up for presentation purposes , but I would imagine that it wouldn't have taken to much work to get it running , as everything seems to be in place.

So...to date , there are no old photos of the watercooled 250cc Merlin prototype in Josep's collection , but this doesn't matter.​He has the real thing :).